fprintf – PHP String Functions

Syntax :

Description :

fprintf() function writes a formatted string to a stream. Stream specified by stream_handle.

Write a string produced according to string_format to the stream resource specified by stream_handle.

The arg1, arg2, ++ parameters will be inserted at percent (%) signs in the main string.

This function works “step-by-step”.

• At the first % sign, arg1 is inserted,
• at the second % sign, arg2 is inserted, etc.

Note: If there are more % signs than arguments, you must use placeholders. A placeholder is inserted after the % sign, and consists of the argument- number and “\$”. See example two.

Parameter :

[table caption=”” width=”100%” colwidth=”15%|15%|15%|55%” colalign=”left|lef|lef|left”]
Name, Required /Optional, Value Type, Description

stream_handle, Required, resource , It Specifies where to write/output the string

string_format, Required, String , Specifies the string and how to format the variables in it.

arg1, Required, Mixed , Required. The argument to be inserted at the first %-sign in the format string

arg2, Optional, Mixed , Optional. The argument to be inserted at the second %-sign in the format string

arg3, Optional, Mixed , The argument to be inserted at the third and fourth and so on etc. %-sign in the format string.

[/table]

String format types ::

It is a Required parameter and Specifies the string and how to format the variables in it. Possible format values:

• %% – Returns a percent sign
• %b – Binary number
• %c – The character according to the ASCII value
• %d – Signed decimal number (negative, zero or positive)
• %e – Scientific notation using a lowercase (e.g. 1.2e+2)
• %E – Scientific notation using a uppercase (e.g. 1.2E+2)
• %u – Unsigned decimal number (equal to or greather than zero)
• %f – Floating-point number (local settings aware)
• %F – Floating-point number (not local settings aware)
• %g – shorter of %e and %f
• %G – shorter of %E and %f
• %o – Octal number
• %s – String
• %x – Hexadecimal number (lowercase letters)
• %X – Hexadecimal number (uppercase letters)

Additional format values. These are placed between the % and the letter (example %.2f):

• + (Forces both + and – in front of numbers. By default, only negative numbers are marked)
• ‘ (Specifies what to use as padding. Default is space. Must be used together with the width specifier. Example: %’x20s (this uses “x” as padding)
• – (Left-justifies the variable value)
• [0-9] (Specifies the minimum width held of to the variable value)
• .[0-9] (Specifies the number of decimal digits or maximum string length)

Output :

It returns the length of the string written to database or file.

Or words length of the output string.

Related articles : number_format(), printf(), sprintf(), sscanf(), fscanf(), vsprintf().

fprintf() – PHP Functions Example 1 : Write one text line to a file.

<?php
$numb = 10;
$str = "PHP";
$file = fopen("test.txt","w");
echo fprintf($file,"There are %u pages tutorial of my subject %s.",$num,$str);
?>

Output of above code in the browser is as below. The following text will be written to the file “test.txt”:

fprintf() – PHP Functions Example 2 : Use of Placeholders

<?php
$number = 167;
$file = fopen("test.txt","w");
fprintf($file,"With 2 decimals: %1\$.2f
\nWith no decimals: %1\$u",$number);
?>

The following code in written in the file “test-frontf.txt” :

fprintf() – PHP Functions Example 3 : Use of all the possible formats for the values

<?php
$n = 45645654;
$u = -45645654;
$c = 66; // ASCII 65 is 'B'

// notice the double %%, this prints a literal '%' character
printf("%%b = '%b'\n", $n); // binary representation
printf("%%c = '%c'\n", $c); // print the ascii character, same as chr() function
printf("%%d = '%d'\n", $n); // standard integer representation
printf("%%e = '%e'\n", $n); // scientific notation
printf("%%u = '%u'\n", $n); // unsigned integer representation of a positive integer
printf("%%u = '%u'\n", $u); // unsigned integer representation of a negative integer
printf("%%f = '%f'\n", $n); // floating point representation
printf("%%o = '%o'\n", $n); // octal representation
printf("%%s = '%s'\n", $n); // string representation
printf("%%x = '%x'\n", $n); // hexadecimal representation (lower-case)
printf("%%X = '%X'\n", $n); // hexadecimal representation (upper-case)

printf("%%+d = '%+d'\n", $n); // sign specifier on a positive integer
printf("%%+d = '%+d'\n", $u); // sign specifier on a negative integer
?>

The following code in written in the file “test-frontf.txt” :